I had so much fun this weekend!
Yesterday’s blog post gave you a bit of a preview, but here’s what happened in greater detail.
A lot of people don’t know this, but I’m lactose intolerant. That means I can’t drink cows’ milk. (Don’t worry; I’m going to get to the fabric part! I promise!)
However I can drink goats’ milk. And last spring a local family gave me several gallons of fresh goats’ milk, which I pasteurized, froze, and was able to eat/drink over the course of several months.
It was a very kind gesture, on the part of the Lancaster family.
So when I found out that they have a four-year-old daughter, I was determined to make her a small wardrobe of doll clothes for her Barbies. Kind gestures deserve kindness in return!
How did I choose my fabrics so the whole ensemble would mix-and-match well? That’s what this blog post is all about…
I started with the most colorful of the fabrics. Can you tell what colors appear in this print? Try to name them:
Then I went to the drawer where I kept my fabrics, and I searched for colors that would match this multi-colored fabric.
I lay them together in piles, and then in pairs, trying to decide if any of the colors are not compatible with the pallet.
Take a look at the pairings of fabrics in this collage. Which color seems to contrast too much?
If you said “Orange,” I would agree with you. It’s just too strong, when you pair it with the other fabrics in the selection. Have a closer look:
I ended up swapping orange for white, and then later, when I’d made a few garments, I added a new fabric.
I felt like the selection had turned out too dark, and maybe a little too dreary for a little girl’s dolls. I wanted to work with the pink a bit, so I set out various swatches of colorful fabrics among the garments I’d made so far.
I ended up going with this pink fabric, which had polka dots that sort of matched the other colors I was working with:
I liked this pink with multicolored polka dots, but at first, I was worried that the clothes I’d made so far were more of a wine color, while the pink fabric had more of a maroon shade to the darkest of its polka dots.
So I took the reversible tank top that I’d made and flipped it inside out, to compare that wine color with the polka dots in the pink fabric. Here’s how that looked…
The pink fabric with multicolored polka dots would be used for a dress, so it didn’t necessarily have to mix-and-match like the separates would.
But in the end, I really liked the color pallet of the whole wardrobe. I think the little girl who receives this gift will be able to mix and match her outfits nicely, with few issues.
When you’re making a doll’s wardrobe, how do you choose your fabrics? Leave comments, so we can all learn from each other!